AORCOM Chairman (Pato) has sent an email to a lot of people asking for questions to be put in a survey which will be taken in June. So far it will cover things like the success or not of PROLITE CLASS, The NATIONAL TRI SERIES (Not to be confused with the NSW Tri Series) If you did not get this email, ask your club secretary, panel member or email me on fullers@ausnet.net.au and I will forward it to you. It is very important for our future, that the right questions are asked, so have your say. It is also of interest that the Australian Institiute of Motor Sport Safety is going to have a look at the SEAT BELT issues.
Maurie Fuller (I do not represent any group or body)
thanks ian that worked a treat , in one of patos question he was ask if the competitors were gun shy , it think most poeple are under the gun. not shy , the cost of every thing has gone up and as offroading is a hobbie sport when the cash has to be used to get by the hobbie has to suffer .
Sorry Shaun, When you log on "View Image" appears under the item, click on that, when the item appears it may go small again, put your curser on the page and an orange icon appears and it says"Expand to regular size", click on that and there it is, big as life. Keep up the discussions, it is all good, people are reading your opinions!! Maurie
I'd have to agree with shaun, with the price of everything going up the hobbies are the first to suffer, especially when there is no return for all the money you put in, i know myself i was planning on doing the national tri-series this year but a damaged gearbox at the end of last year stopped that (hopefully next year). I find the hardest thing is when you approach people about sponsorship they have never heard of offroad racing so their not interested. One thing i would like to know is how many other prolites are being build out there or plan on changing to prolite and are they now going to change the class when people have modified their cars to suit this class like me
Hi Kelvin I do think that prolite class will be a great class. I am also going to this class. So i am having a year off to put in the motor in and getting the car rebuild suit this class. And i need a rest from racing i have been doing it for over 20 years.
For the first attempt at AORC level, the Donald 500 should be commended for having over 70 entries, Well done. In years to come it may well get even bigger. How can we expect 100 entries to suddenly appear at one race, when the average entry list barely cracks the 50 mark?
To say Prolite has not taken off after only 2 seasons is crazy, and just because they aren't showing at national level, doesn't mean its a failure...In NSW its going really well. After looking at the entry list from Donald, I would be more concerned that there are less cars in classes that have been around for ever, eg Class4,5,7 and 8.
Off Road is cheap compared to other disciplines???? for the amount of exposure, its far more expensive. Unless your building a V8 Supercar, most race cars will cost far less than a competitive Off Road car. far cheaper to maintain, far cheaper to travel and far cheaper to develop. This comes from years of family experience in motorsport, not just general observation. Regardless of cost, we race Off Road because we love it, or I do anyway.
The Tri Series is a great idea, and given time, I believe will prove popular. But no matter where you are based, it still costs a lot to travel, even if its only 3 rounds. I can do the whole state series for the same money or less.
Most of us who took part in the survey, agreed with the new ideas, to take Off Road into the future. It didn't mean we were all going to build Prolite buggies for the Tri series within 6 months.
I think Off Road is doing very well considering the cost of fuel, mortgage stress and other pressures of day to day life that most of us have to deal with.
maybe there needs to be less emphasis on out right finishers and more on class wins , i also agree that its a bit early to say that prolite and the tri series have not been a success , instead of more changes we need to work on building the profile of the sport
One thing i would like to know is how many other prolites are being build out there or plan on changing to prolite and are they now going to change the class when people have modified their cars to suit this class like me
I hear where your coming from 2204 but as guys from the old class 9 got single seaters because thats the class we wanted to race in only to told we had to become pro/prolite cars.
WHY??? do people think there is anything wrong?....off-road seems fine to me!
Although NSW STATE level seems to be suffering a bit this year with low entries. How are state level events in other states going? B.T.W., I have converted to PROLITE, AND planned to to the AORC tri-series this year, but we bought a farm (and lots of debt), so the buggy is now a place for the chooks to nest for a while!! I also believe it would be a huge benefit to not replace seat belts so often (absolutely ridiculous rule to start with), especially for club level/budget racers.
I dont reckon there's much wrong with offroad racing. Bear in mind that intrest rates are high and the cost of living is high, so pulling 75 cars for donald is a pretty good effort in todays economy. Gone are the halcyon days of the 80s. As for the expense... if its too costly go race class 6.
Prolite is a step in the right direction - give it time. Same with the tri series events, both AORC and NSWORC.
Dont have a solution for why the NSW state numbers are down. As Jones asked, is it the same in other states? Tow costs maybe? Anyone out there run their state rounds last year but not this year? if so, why not?
In a perfect world Rick and I wold be running both AORC and NSW tri-series in a prolite, not buying houses, having kids and building extensions!
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Green Sally up. Green Sally down. Lift and squat, gonna tear the ground.
Good point gary Paying a house off, building a new buggy, a kid, work comittments, fuel they all add up we will get there one day We raced Kempsey in the 90's(living at home dept free) with 130+ entries pesonally i couldn't wait for around lap 3 or so when a 1/3 rd of the field either hit trees or broke down then there wasn't as much dust or traffic 75-100 entries i think is great Best part about the sport is you build it yourself maintain it yourself (we are now to keep the cost down) down side is takes longer As for Class 6 or whatever class your in you still have the same entry travel cost ect just you running cost get more if you go pro class
Not sure what halcyon even means.There were higher numbers of entrants in the 80's but the total value of the cars in the field wouldn't buy the first two placegetters cars at Donald.
The number of Jimcos , Porters etc is mind blowing so the economy is not hurting everyone. Maybe numbers are down because the bar has been raised so high and an entry level car now costs as much as an outright capable car did in the eighties.
off road racing is looking awesome just coming back from donald bang for buck is probaly the best motorsport to be in the seat time you get compared to any other form is massive and entries are still under $500.00 regardless on how much a race car is from 5k to 300k to take it to the next level (tv sponsorship ect) as so many people talk about which has been talked about the last 30yrs it will never happen out in the desert the level it is at now is great cheap to enter great numbers well organised starting to cater for families and will only get better. look at USA why is every top racer racing corr? to fund their desert racing which is the ultimate.you can attract sponsors,spectators exciting close racing easier than desert.this is a perfert example if i take a potential major sponsor to an event i know they will sign off on an event that has t.v,spectators (thousends),location close to major city,well promoted put the company up in corporate box with all the bling.they will find this more attractive than driving 5-6 hrs from a capitial city to sit in the dirt. i am not knocking the desert racing as this is why i race, just for attracting sponsors out in the desert if we can ride a short corse series to then go desert racing and you dont have to have a short corse car as the majority of us can not afford. set it up to use our desert cars. we dont want to go down the line of rally massive costs just to be on t.v. woopee they get SOME sponsors but it all goes back in to just to compete. short course gets spectators let them pay for everything as we are putting on the show eg over in perth 6 yes 6 monster trucks attracted 9-10000 people at $70. a ticket in a stadium but they put on a really go SHOW thats what it is about putting a complete show . it is really hard to get sponsors and the myth about sponsors paying you to go racing dosent happen but spectators WILL.how the short course series is run this is easy put RULES in place no CRASH AND BASH ther is no crash and bash when we go desert racing why should it be any different.basically it would be great to have tv at our desert rounds but i know who will be paying for it and why just to watch ourselves .the USA is leading the world in off road lets follow there system we have already there cars here. cheers chris
Rush, Interesting comments. Just want to correct your terminology. There is definitely no "CRASH AND BASH" in SHORT COURSE Off Road Racing. You must be referring to STADIUM RACING.
Not sure what halcyon even means.There were higher numbers of entrants in the 80's but the total value of the cars in the field wouldn't buy the first two placegetters cars at Donald.
The number of Jimcos , Porters etc is mind blowing so the economy is not hurting everyone. Maybe numbers are down because the bar has been raised so high and an entry level car now costs as much as an outright capable car did in the eighties.
Quality vs Quantity then? I wasnt around offroad in the 80's when big car numbers were around but for those that were, what do you think is better for offroad? Lots of lower quality cars, or fewer cars of higher quality?
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Green Sally up. Green Sally down. Lift and squat, gonna tear the ground.
i was refering to the corr style racing were they can T bone each other and yes there is no crash and bash in our current short course with them only taking off max 4 at a time but when you mass start ie grid style(v8 super car) put rules in place and you have clean racing you will still draw massive crowds with out having crashes.small stadium racing (oval size) is not the future as we want to use our current desert cars imagen the top 10 cars in Australia racing in the middle of oran park track 4km long, 4 cars wide, no dust, speed up 160km/h,croncrete pits if this is promoted all the rest of us can get the benifets which will spread to the desert ,the leage that these guys are in now ie kittles, bentley, renstch, robinsons, gallard ect is more than enough to show off to Australia. this is a whole new discussion how and where short course is done. cheers chris
The problem is though, that even with rules in place that you can't push people out of the way, etc, accidents are a lot more likely to happen in that style of racing they they are on the long course tracks. And those crashes can cost lots and lots of money to fix. No doubt some could afford the repairs, but many have already invested as much as they have to get those good cars, so they don't have the money to throw at those sort of repairs.
Yes Wolf In the old days (80's) there were lots of cars, but the attricion rate was very high. Class 1 was arguably famous for having the highest. Gearboxes mainly. Shunting was a big problem with the differences of speed and the narrow tracks. Trees have always been a concern. (Just to explain to the desert racers, trees and stumps are large natural, immovable objects that restrict the width of tracks mainly on the eastern seaboard) Interesting discussion though. In the NSW State and National environment, we seem to have moved a little further apart in design and developement, and I know this will provoke some discussion. I am not saying this is bad and we can't change things anyway.
Interesting topic. I have been involved in the sport since 1981, so here is my two bobs worth. I think one of the problems with our sport today is that there are two very different groups that compete in our sport. The first is the full on racer who has very expensive race car, transporter, etc. Their number one aim is to win races. They seek high level media coverage to attract sponsors to help cover their huge costs. They prefer to stay in motels & spend their evenings downloading data from their cars computer system. I say good luck to them, if I had that sort of money I would do it too.
The second & I believe much larger group is the racer who is involved in the sport for fun. They don't really care about media, they are professional in their approach to preparation of their car. They are happy to just compete, if they pick up a place then that's a bonus. They love to camp with their friends & other club members & prefer to spend the night before a race sitting arround a campfire enjoying a quiet soft drink.
The problems occur when these two groups combine. The first & most obvious is the speed difference. The second problem is a safety & engineering one. Should a car that is capable of 220kph plus have things like on board fire system, hanns device, speed rated tyres, full race suit, new seat belts every two years etc. I say yes. If your car is worth 100 grand plus then these expenses are minimal in the overall cost of going racing.
It is quite feasable & propper that our rulemakers have change things often to keep up with the ever increasing speeds of modern off road cars. The problem is that to enforce such costs on a car that is worth 5-10 grand is not reasonable. There seems to be no ability to govern the top end of the sport without a huge detrimental effect on the bottem.
Pehaps it is time we did soething similar to what the V8's did, that is the made V8's a seperate setup from all other sedan racing. Is it time that we had offroad supercars with there own set of rules & regulations. These cars would compete for the offroad championship etc. They would get there high media exposure, they would not have to put up with slow old blokes like me out there having a bit of fun.
i think stingray that the so called top racers are there to have the same fun as the racer who owns a 5k car we are not racing for sheep stations and massive prize money the racer who owns a 5k car puts in the same effort to get his car ready as the others i think this is the best thing about off road in general no matter what budget you have you can race and be treated with the same respect as any other competetor the guys with the top cars have all been there with there 5k car when starting dont seperate the field due to money spenton there race cars if its saftey gear that becomes an extra cost to go racing i think its good at the end of the day if any of us have an accident and are saved by the saftey rules then it has to be good the one thing i still dont understand is when people can tell the difference between a national race car and a state race car. cheers chris
all you guys should come and race at colo,as you should know sydney is the biggest populated city in australia and obviously have the biggest club and best organised racing you will see anywhere.it is the biggest offroad secret in aus
you want to seperate the offroad community based on budget? I'd strongly disagree, I reckon most offroaders would. AORCom is working to fill gaps in our sport, not create them. Do you see rally running seperate events for the guns and the clubbies? Theyve got tv coverage and its not helping them at the moment. Theyre sport is diminishing fast while ours is growing. So I say if it aint broke, dont try to fix it!
Besides, thats just not in the spirit of offroad.
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Green Sally up. Green Sally down. Lift and squat, gonna tear the ground.
An email today from Pato to say that there will be a meeting at Alice Springs to discuss NOISE on Friday the 6th June. Again if anybody wants a copy you can email me and I will forward it on. fullers@ausnet.net.au